May 1, 2016

Slice of PIE: How CHS Is Like DS9

How much is Deep Space Nine like my high school?

We both have a Commander – ours is called a Principal.
DS9 actually HAD a school, and Sisko’s son, Jake was a student there. In his
spare time, Jake also became friends with a Ferengi named Nog and there were
several episodes involving the school, as well as one of its teachers, Keiko O’Brien,
wife of the Chief Engineer, Miles O’Brien. The school was integral to several
story lines.

So in what other ways is my school like DS9?

Perhaps the next most obvious way is the diversity of the
school and how students and staff interact. This is, like on the show, where
most of the drama comes from. Cross-cultural understanding, or rather
MISunderstanding, drives half of the conflicts we see in the office. The other
half is interpersonal engagement that has nothing to do with cultures and
everything to do with the stubbornness of the Human condition.

Examples, you ask?

Hmmm, examples are always helpful in lending evidence to
a thesis or, as in this case, answering a question.

An example from my “student counseling”, then.

The leader of the Hispanic Culture group, a counselor at
the school, abruptly left the school when he husband got a much better job in
another state. As the counselor hired to temporarily fill her position, I was de facto, the leader of the Hispanic
Culture group. I started my tenure by meeting with the group the first time
and, holding out my arms, said, “I am obviously an old white guy. I know
nothing of Hispanic, Latino, or Mexican culture. Teach me.”

Apparently that was exactly what I was supposed to say.
The KIDS took ME under their wings and proceeded to educate me. It was a fascinating
and glorious time!

Then came Cinco de Mayo.

A couple of the kids in the group hung a Mexican flag in
the foyer of the building. An administrator told them to take it down. They got
very upset. Who did they come to in order to solve the problem? I’ll give you
ten guesses.

Got it in one, I’ll bet.

Let me educate you, then. Do you know the significance of
Cinco de Mayo? It is emphatically NOT Mexican Independence Day (that’s
September 16). It began…well, it began with the American Civil War, led to the
French support of the Confederacy by Napoleon III, and sprang into the invasion
of Mexico, which was to be the toehold of an expansionist French Empire.
England and Spain had both sent small forces to collect taxes from the Mexican
government, Napoleon sent an invasion force of over 5000 or his best soldiers.
When they attacked, Napoleon was busy deciding who he would send to be Emperor
of his new land. Once that was decided, he would fully back the South against
the North...The Mexican defeat of the superior French forces took place on May 5, 1862.

I deescalated the situation by agreeing to drape the
Mexican flag over my door…which was vetoed by another counselor as “not appropriate”.
So I thumbtacked the flag NEXT to my office door. The parties were appeased and
a crisis averted.

So, you have two major world powers (the US and Mexico) contending
over a minor place (my school and students) in order to gain precedence over
each other and join in a civil war to get rid of a THIRD major power (The
District).

DS9 orbited the small, relatively weak world of Bajor.
Recovering from an occupation by a Quadrant Power (the Cardassian Empire), it
had become a fulcrum from which the Federation…

Hmmm. Let’s back up: It began with the Bajoran revolt against
Cardassia, led by the Bajoran underground which was supported by the Federation
Council, which led to the Cardassian withdrawal and the Federation takeover.
The Founders of the Dominion, another superpower from the other side of the
wormhole, sent an invasion force of their best soldiers – the Jem’Hadar. When
they attacked, the Founders were busy deciding who they would send to be
Emperor of their new land. Once that was decided, they would fully back the
Cardassians against the Federation…

See? My high school is just like DS9.

The upshot here is that I should be mining the exploits
of the teachers and staff there and using the incidents and conflicts to extend
my reach as a writer. Which I will now do, because when I began this article, I
thought the comparison was minor – and I now realize that there are a
heckuvalot more parallels than I expected. In fact, I have an idea bubbling
around in my thick head and I think I need to write it down before I forget it!

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GUY STEWART

is a husband supporting his wife as a six+ year(!) breast cancer survivor, a father, father-in-law, grandfather, foster father, friend, writer, teacher, and school counselor who maintains a SF/YA/Childrens writing blog by the name of POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS that showcases his opinion and offers his writing up for comment. He has 55 publications to his credit including one books (1993 CSS Publishing)! He also maintains blogs for the West Suburban Summer School and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT BREAST CANCER! His Amazon page is here: http://www.amazon.com/ and type in my name!